On December 13, 2020, a Falcon 9 rocket launched the Sirius XM-7 mission. It was the seventh flight for this primary stage. [credit: Trevor Mahlmann ]
The notion of reusing rockets lastly went mainstream in 2020. Because the yr progressed, it grew to become clear that SpaceX launch prospects have gotten so much extra comfy with flying on used, or “flight-proven,” first phases of the Falcon 9 rocket. One business buyer, Sirius, launched its XM-7 satellite tv for pc on the seventh flight of a Falcon 9 booster in December. Additionally, the primary nationwide safety payload flew on a reused booster final month when the US Nationwide Reconnaissance Workplace launched its NROL-18 mission on the fifth flight of a Falcon 9 first stage.
NASA, too, agreed to fly future crewed missions to the Worldwide House Station—starting with the Crew-2 spaceflight within the spring of 2021—on used Falcon 9 rockets. And the US House Power mentioned it will launch its GPS III satellites on used boosters sooner or later as nicely. These are among the many highest-value missions america has.
One other vital step got here when a second US launch firm, Rocket Lab, started to display rocket reuse. The corporate experimented all through 2020 on methods to guard the return of its Electron first stage throughout reentry into Earth’s environment. Then, it recovered an Electron stage for the primary time in November.
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